Prison Break
by Cadet Deming
Summary: The Avengers on the losing side of Captain America: Civil War find escaping The Raft harder than they thought. Spoilers for Civil War
1. Chapter 1

Prison Break Chapter 1

By: Cadet Deming

After the events Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers on the losing side find adjusting to life on and escaping from "The Raft" prison harder than expected. PG-13 for language and action. I don't own the rights to the Avengers, so please don't sue. Includes characters from the movies and comics, no major original characters. Please read and review.

Sam Wilson felt like his wings had been clipped. His head was covered with a black fabric bag, his wrists were shackled behind his back, and he had no idea where the metal winged flight suit that had become such an extended part of him had been taken to. He felt like he had been swallowed up by darkness.

His only consolation was that at least his teammates from the Anti-Registration fight, the ones who had sided with him to follow Steve Rogers and fight signing away their freedom to the Sokovia Accords were with him too.

Scott Lang said, "Hey, if it helps you guys I've been in prison before. I can show you the ropes. I'm not totally useless without the Ant-Man suit!"

Sam questioned if being with his teammates was such a positive thing after all.

Sam said, "Remind me why I recruited you again?"

Scott said, "That was uncalled for. Haven't we had enough infighting?"

Clint Barton interrupted them, "I've been in prison too and one of the first things I learned was keep your mouth shut. I can't hear myself think."

Wanda Maximoff, the only female and only person with actual superhuman abilities chimed in, "I can't hear you think either. I can't hear anyone think. It is like my telepathy is gone. It is as if they are… dampening it somehow. I just hear…static."

Sam listened. There was an electric hum like an elevator, but no sounds of the outdoors. No birds singing, no cars driving by, just an eerie silence. The air felt unnaturally thick, and the air pressure popped in his ears.

Sam said, "We're going down. It feels like way down, underground or something. Where are we?"

Sam felt a touch of claustrophobia. As a child he had grown up in a basement apartment in Harlem, too many kids crowded into too little space. He dreaded walking down the rickety stairs to the musty, moldy smell of "home." His earliest idea of freedom was going up to the roof of the tenement building and watching the pigeons fly out over the city. Sam questioned if he would ever feel freedom again.

The floor stopped moving and he heard an elevator door open in front of him. Grey light peeked through the fabric that blinded him.

A woman said, "Step forward please. All of you."

He walked forward and someone pulled the bag off of his head. They were surrounded by guards and a tall blonde woman. The woman wore a black suit and heels. The guards were heavily armed and had weapons trained on his group.

Sam took a quick glance at the other Avengers and Scott. Wanda's eye makeup had been smudged as if she had been crying. Clint squinted appraisingly at their surroundings, as if he was studying for how to escape. Scott looked like he was struggling to seem tough, but Sam could see the nervousness on his face.

The woman said, "Welcome to the Raft. We're the highest security prison in the world. No one has ever escaped. My name is Doctor Karla Sofen, Lead Psychiatrist for the Department of Superhuman Containment and Director of Prisoner Relations. Walk with me and I'll show you around."

She turned tail and the guards jostled him forward. Dr. Sofen's heels clicked loudly against the metal floor. The soles of her shoes were an expensive bright red. Her walk was a confident sway.

Sofen said, "Each of you will spend 90% of your time in an enforced cell. You will be allowed a half hour each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You get one hour maximum in the exercise room. Showers are 20 minutes only, men at 7 AM and female prisoners at 6:30 AM."

Sam noted she made no mention of a prison yard. He wondered how far underground they were. He smelled the dampness he associated with being underground. This wasn't moldy so much as…salty?

Scott said, "You mean we have a co-ed prison but we don't get co-ed showers? What's the point of being here?"

Sofen said, "The point Mr. Lang, is you have been deemed a danger to society and need to be contained."

Scott said, "No rehabilitation? No parole? No chance to see my daughter?"

Clint said, "Yeah about that, I've got a wife and three kids. Am I ever gonna get to see them?"

Sofen turned towards him. "We don't have visitation because no one without a need to know is aware of where we are. The President of the United States doesn't even know where we are. And if you are so concerned about your family Mr. Barton, maybe you should have thought of that before committing treason against the United Nations."

Clint gave her a death glare. She smirked back at him.

The floor grumbled. A low roar bellowed.

Wanda frowned and asked, "Are you keeping the Hulk here?"

Sofen sighed, "No. Not yet, but Secretary Ross is working on locating him. We have something much worse. We have a lot of…things that are much worse here."

Sam wondered how bad they were if she called them "things' instead of people.

Sam asked, "Are we gonna meet the other prisoners?"

"You'll meet some of the less dangerous ones. In the sense that Mussolini was less dangerous than Hitler."

Clint asked, "How far underground are we?"

Dr. Sofen laughed. It wasn't a nice laugh at all, but full of condescension.

She said, "We aren't under the ground. We're under the ocean. We're so far under the ocean that outside of this complex if you tried to escape the water pressure would crush you to death if you didn't drown on the way up."

Scott asked, "Is it too late to send us to Guantanamo Bay? A Siberian gulag? A hard labor work camp? My ex mother-in law's beach house?"

A guard pressed his weapon into Sam's back and they started walking again.

Clint muttered "Abandon all hope ye who enter here."

Wanda sighed, "We are here because we deserve to be."

Sam said, "Don't say that. That isn't true. I have faith."

Wanda said bitterly, "Faith in what? In Jesus?"

Sam said, "Faith in Steve Rogers. He's gotta get us out of here."

To be continued.


	2. Chapter 2

Prison Break Chapter 2

By Cadet Deming

Rated PG-13. Thank you so much to those who review.

Clint Barton traced his fingers along the wall. It felt like ice, with movement like water currents pulsing behind it. His hawk-like eyes saw rubber along the top of the wall, and hinges on the bottom.

A guard barked at him, "Get back in line or no dinner."

Clint hurried along.

He murmured to the other teammates, "Some of these walls are doors."

Sam said, "That's good, right? Makes it easier to break out?"

Scott said, "Not necessarily. I have a background in engineering, and these are designed to swing inwards. Why would they be set up that way unless they wanted to flood this place?"

Clint frowned. He had heard rumors that the Center for Disease Control had a fail-safe to burn everything inside in case its security was compromised. He wondered if this was a fail-safe of sorts, if the prisoners were so dangerous the government would rather drown them then allow anything to escape.

He imagined the doors opening up with waves of water crashing in on them. In the past when he knew was doing something life-threatening he tried to have back up routes and contingency plans. Down here there was no backup plan.

Wanda seemed to turn a shade paler than usual, which was saying something.

She sighed, "I think my claustrophobia is getting worse."

They came to a room marked: "Cafeteria: 34 Days without a Novo virus Outbreak!"

Clint said, "If we're about to meet the other prisoners, we need to be careful. Men in prison can be vicious to newcomers. If you seem too strong they'll see you as a threat and try to take you out. If you seem too weak they'll take advantage of you. But some important things to remember: Do not get drawn into a fight with people. Be very wary of anyone who's too friendly, they always have an ulterior motive. Do not let anyone do you a favor in the beginning. You don't want to get in the wrong person's debt. And be careful of making direct eye contact. That could be seen as a threat."

Sam said, "No direct eye contact? Are we dealing with people or wild animals?"

They entered the cafeteria. At the table closest to them, a seat swiveled around revealing a giant monkey-human hybrid. It was covered in mostly olive green hair, with white tufts on its belly. The legs were those of an extremely muscular human, making it as tall as a full-grown man. Its nose was long and red, with blue ridges on the sides. Its eyes were pale yellow but still human, disturbingly so. Clint realized he had already broken his rule of no eye contact and was staring in shock.

The monkey stared at Wanda and smiled, revealing four razor sharp canine fangs. Clint questioned how it was even allowed out with teeth that sharp.

The beast stood in its chair let out an excited shriek, "Oh goody. We finally get another female!"

Clint instinctively stepped between it and Wanda.

One of the guards ordered it, "Sit down and behave yourself Jerome, or we throw you back in sensory deprivation."

Jerome shrieked and bared his fangs even more, but sat down and bent his head as if he was sulking.

Scott said, "Which is weirder: That we joined the Planet of the Apes, or that the chimpanzee's name is Jerome?"

Jerome said, "I'm part Mandrill you half-wit."

Scott said, "Half-wit? Why I outta…"

Scott glanced at Clint, who shook his head.

Scott finished, "…I'm sorry. I'm not an expert on non-insect species. I don't want a fight, not that I'm a wimp that can be taken advantage of in the prison hierarchy, just so we're clear. How is it that you're able to talk?

Jerome said, "Let's say nuclear power isn't as clean and safe as the industry wants you to believe."

Clint and the others took their seats. Opposite Wanda was a female prisoner with long, stringy hair that was faded red on the ends and white at the roots. It clashed with her bright orange jumpsuit. Her mouth was covered with a muzzle, as if she was feral and they needed to keep her from biting the other prisoners.

Next to her and across from Clint was a bald man. Tall and lanky, his forehead had an "X" with a circle carved around it, the scars forming a target sign. The scar tissue appeared red and raw, as if he had been recently defaced.

He half-smiled at Clint, "Welcome to the Raft. I'm Bullseye."

"I'm Clint and this is Wanda, Sam and Scott."

Scott got excited, "Bullseye! I've totally heard of you. You're like, a legend in criminal circles. They say you once killed a guy with a piece of carpet!"

Bullseye smiled completely. It revealed two gaps in his teeth.

"True. It wasn't my most…satisfying job. But it was up there. I can kill anybody, anytime with anything. It's why they won't let me eat solid food here ever since I got bored and murdered a guard with a plastic Spork."

Scott, Sam and Wanda all moved one seat over from him. Clint stood his ground.

Bullseye cocked his head to the side. Clint thought of a predator sizing up its prey.

Bullseye said, "I've heard of you too. You're that Avengers archer. They say you're the best marksman in the world…with arrows. It must suck to be here without the arrows."

Clint sensed he was being baited.

He said tersely, "I get by."

The cafeteria doors swung open and two guards led in a monster. They guided it with what looked like two dog-catcher poles around its neck. It must have been 10 feet tall and was solid muscle. Its flesh was blood-red and its eyes were black and white. The worst part was its mouth. Every tooth was a curved fang, longer than most kitchen knives. As it bellowed it stuck a mottled, pointed tongue into the air.

Scott muttered: "Do not show fear…do not show fear…do not show fear…did I say that out loud."

Clint asked, "What the hell is that?"

Bullseye, "He used to be Cletus Kassidy, the serial killer. Now he calls himself Carnage."

Carnage turned his head to them. His eyes didn't stay one size, but seemed to pulse and change shape.

Carnage growled like he was possessed by a demon speaking with two voices at once, "I see we have new fish. Good, I was runnin' out of snacks."

He was dragged off to a table of his own and chained down.

The guards brought out everyone's meals. Bullseye was given a Styrofoam cup filled with green liquid. The red and white haired woman was given a similar cup with a straw to fit through her muzzle. Carnage had a platter full of raw chicken.

The Avengers were all given a platter full of cafeteria-quality bland food. To the side was a small cup filled with a yellow vitamin capsule and a green pill.

Clint said, "I'm not on any medication."

A guard said, "If Dr. Sofen says you take a pill, you take the damn pill."

Bullseye whispered, "The yellow one is safe. It's just Vitamin D because we don't get any sunlight. I wouldn't take the other one. It causes hand tremors. And what's a fellow marksman without a steady hand?"

Clint felt trapped behind a rock and a hard place. If he took the pill he'd lose his greatest survival skill. If he didn't, he'd be in debt to a psychopath like Bullseye.

Clint sighed, put the pills in his mouth while the guards were looking, and spit it out to his napkin when the guards were distracted.

Bullseye winked at him and said, "I guess you owe me now."

To Be Continued


End file.
